The revolution he led was a revolution supported by the soldiers, and the vast hordes of people who were poor or felt they were poor. He was a dictator, but a popular dictator. The people didn’t want a republic anymore because the republic had become corrupt. The republic was broken and the people didn’t care if Caesar was a conservative or a democrat. They didn’t care if he was pro life or pro death. They didn’t care if he was going to be a ruthless dictator. They were willing to risk that as long as he overthrew the super rich families who controlled the senate, the wealth and held all the power.
Was he powerful himself? They liked that because he was the kind of man who “got things done.” He “made the trains run on time.” In allowing the republic to fail were the people giving up their freedom? In their poverty they didn’t feel like they had much freedom anyway so it didn’t matter. From their point of view “freedom” was something the rich people had. Their lives were lives of drudgery, fear and hopelessness.
Sound familiar? What is the overturn of Jeb Bush except the people saying “We don’t want another Bush. We don’t want the patrician, privileged Bush clan to rule us anymore and send our boys and girls to war and have them come back wounded and tossed on the trash heap of the crappy VA. Why are Americans looking for an emperor? Because they feel powerless in the face of Washington’s corruption, the lobbyists, big government, big business and big banks.
Caesar swept into dictatorial power because he controlled the army. His seizure of power led to a decade long civil war which, after his assassination, his adopted son, Augustus Caesar won and established himself as the first true emperor. Trump does not control the army, but if he becomes president he will become Commander in Chief.
Then what?
As they say… “History doesn’t repeat itself…but it does rhyme.”